Police in Kenya on Monday recovered the body of a man believed to have been attacked by a lion while he was riding a motorcycle near a national reserve in the south of the country.

Police were notified by community members of an abandoned motorcycle along a road near the Marere forested area near the Shimba Hills National Reserve.

Officers saw lion footprints that led from the motorcycle to a thicket where they found the remains of an unknown dead man, according to a police report.

The lion population was declining in Kenya just over a decade ago, primarily due to human-wildlife conflict. The government listed lions as endangered, with an estimated population of 2,000 in 2010. A more recent survey put the number at 2,489.

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The Associated Press contributed to this article.